Google Cloud Platform expands its enterprise networking

Google Cloud Platform introduced several additions to its enterprise networking portfolio.

Cloud NATBeta - a Google-managed Network Address Translation service that lets enterprises provision application instances without public IP addresses while also allowing them to access the Tnternet for updates, patching, config management in a controlled and efficient manner. Outside resources cannot directly access any of the private instances behind the Cloud NAT gateway, thereby helping to keep your Google Cloud VPCs isolated and secure.

Firewall Rules LoggingBeta - allows enterprises to audit, verify, and analyze the effects of firewall rules. For example, it provides visibility into potential connection attempts that are blocked by a given firewall rule. Logging is also useful to determine that there weren't any unauthorized connections allowed into an application. Firewall log records of allowed or denied connections are reported every five seconds, and can be exported to Stackdriver Logging, Cloud Pub/Sub, or BigQuery.

Managed TLS Certificates for HTTPS load balancersBeta - load balancing customers can now deploy HTTPS load balancers, Google taking care of provisioning root-trusted TLS certificates for you and manage their lifecycle including renewals and revocation.

https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/networking/simplifying-cloud-networking-for-enterprises-announcing-cloud-nat-and-more

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Google Cloud Storage adds regional replication

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) introduced more data storage replication options within regions and between regions. This allows customers to move large data sets across regions using Google infrastructure for ensuring availability and business continuity.

Some highlights:

• A new dual-regional option for replicating data, which is especially beneficial for analytics or big data workloads. Customers are able to write to a single dual-regional bucket without having to manually copy data between primary and secondary locations. 
• Nearline and Coldline data now geo-redundant in multi-regional locations, raising the availability of archival data stored this way. 
• A new look coming for Cloud Storage choices.
• A new Cloud Storage C++ library so developers can customize their applications.
• A new dual-regional option available in beta

https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/storage-data-transfer/store-it-analyze-it-back-it-up-cloud-storage-updates-bring-new-replication-options

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Deutsche Telekom outlines 5G program

Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges outlined an eight-point program for rolling out 5G that targets coverage to 99% of Germany's population by 2025. The company is aiming to launch commercial 5G operation will launch in 2020 when terminal devices are available in sufficient numbers. Already 22,000 of the company's 27,000 mobile sites are already 5G-ready thanks to fiber-optic connectivity and the single RAN technology.

Speaking at the Telekom Netze-Tag event in Berlin, Höttges repeated his commitment to continue investing around 5.5 billion euros annually in the build-out of broadband networks in Germany.

He called on representatives from the political and industrial worlds to cooperate with network providers to pave the way for "the best 5G infrastructure in the world."

“Companies, authorities, and citizens in Germany are entitled to the best-performing digital infrastructure. In urban centers and rural areas alike. Broadband for everyone instead of a digital divide remains the objective. We will only achieve this objective by working together, not by competing with one another,” said Tim Höttges at the BDI conference in Berlin. “Not possible is not an option – gigabit networks for Germany.”

Some highlights:

• 5G coverage to 99 percent of the German population by 2025. 
• Targetting 90 percent 5G area coverage by 2025. This level can be achieved with 4G in 2021. 
• The DT Group will invest 20 billion euros in Germany by 2021.
• All mobile base stations will be equipped to run initial 5G applications such as the NB-IoT
• DT is also speeding up the installation of new antenna sites. It currently operates 27,000 antenna sites and will be adding at least 2,000 each year. The number of antenna sites will reach 36,000 by 2021.
• DT is currently running a 5G test cluster in central Berlin. 

https://www.telekom.com/en/media/media-information/archive/working-hard-on-the-5g-roll-out-in-germany-545412

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Snowflake adds $450 million in funding for data warehousing

Snowflake Computing, a start-up based in San Mateo, California, closed $450 million in additional growth funding led by Sequoia Capital and including existing investors: Altimeter Capital, Capital One Growth Ventures, ICONIQ Capital, Madrona Venture Group, Redpoint Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures and Wing Ventures. New investor Meritech Capital also joined this round, which raises Snowflake’s pre-money valuation to $3.5 billion.

Earlier this year, Snowflake announced $263 million new venture funding in a round led by ICONIQ Capital, Altimeter Capital and newcomer Sequoia Capital.

This second round brings Snowflake’s total amount raised to $923 million.

Snowflake is headed by Bob Muglia, who previously was president of Microsoft’s $16 billion Server and Tools Business, responsible for products such as Windows Server, SQL Server, System Center and Windows Azure. Snowflake recently announced its availability on Microsoft Azure and its continued support for Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Snowflake has offered data warehousing services since 2015. It claims 1,000 active customers, including Netflix, Office Depot, DoorDash, Netgear, Ebates and Yamaha.

“Learning to be data-driven is an imperative for every organization today, and a data-driven organization must be in control of its data,” Snowflake CEO Bob Muglia said. “Snowflake is the most powerful data warehouse in the world for analytics solutions. That power delivers the security, control and business answers needed to enable data-driven organizations. This is driving spectacular growth for our company, and this latest funding round will provide Snowflake with the resources we need to serve our rapidly growing set of new and existing customers around the world.”

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EXFO posts Q4 sales of US$69 million

EXFO reported sales in its fourth quarter of fiscal 2018 of US$69.2 million compared to US$63.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2017. Annual sales improved 10.8% to US$269.5 million in fiscal 2018 from US$243.3 million in 2017. IFRS net loss amounted to US$4.0 million, or US$0.07 per share, compared to net earnings of US$0.8 million, or US$0.02 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2017. In fiscal 2018, IFRS net loss totaled US$11.9 million, or US$0.22 per share, compared to net earnings of US$0.9 million, or US$0.02 per share, in 2017.

Bookings totaled US$63.1 million for a book-to-bill ratio of 0.91 in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018 compared to US$66.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2017. Overall for fiscal 2018, bookings increased 6.3% to US$267.7 million for a book-to-bill ratio of 0.99 from US$251.8 million in 2017.

Gross margin before depreciation and amortization* attained 60.4% of sales in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018 compared 61.9% in the fourth quarter of 2017. Gross margin before depreciation and amortization included restructuring charges of 0.7% of sales in the fourth quarter of 2018 and 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2017. In fiscal 2018, gross margin before depreciation and amortization reached 61.0% of sales compared to 61.2% in 2017. Gross margin before depreciation and amortization included restructuring charges of 0.2% of sales in 2018 and 0.7% in 2017.

"During fiscal 2018, we made significant progress to strategically transform EXFO into a supplier of software-intensive, end-to-end solutions and analytics for fiber, mobile and virtualized networks," said Philippe Morin, EXFO's Chief Executive Officer. "While communications service providers are undergoing fundamental changes to their business models and network architectures with upcoming 5G and IoT deployments, EXFO has positioned itself as a supplier of choice delivering superior network performance, service reliability and subscriber insights through the acquisitions of Astellia and Ontology. Although these transformations are mostly unfolding according to plan, I am disappointed with our financial results in 2018 due to deal delays and the current market environment," Mr. Morin added. "Nonetheless, we have planned significant improvements for 2019 with an increased focus on execution."

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MegaFon's CEO steps down

Russia's MegaFon announced the resignation of its General Director and CEO, Sergey Soldatenkov, who will leave the company before the expiration of his contract in 2019.

MegaFon's Board of Directors appointed Gevork Vermishian to take over his positions. Vermishian is currently Executive Director.

Sergey Soldatenkov commented: “I have decided that the time has come to hand the reins to Gevork. I have been involved with the Company since its creation, almost 20 years ago. Throughout this time we have been at the forefront of innovation: we were the first to launch new products and services, we surprised clients and competitors, and we were not afraid to change the sector nor, most importantly, to change ourselves. However, we have been conscious for a long time of the need for a management succession plan. With this in mind, we asked Gevork to take on the role of Executive Director last October, with a view to having me focus on strategy and government relations and having Gevork take on operational issues. In this way it was possible to gradually transition responsibilities to Gevork, and I believe that he is now ready to take over my responsibilities as well and assume full control of the management of the company."

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ADTRAN delivers 2nd gen Gfast capable of 2 Gbps

ADTRAN launched its 2nd generation Gfast products allowing for the transparent extension of FTTH service capabilities.

The company is the first to deliver Gfast solutions that conform with Amendment 3 of the ITU-T G.fast standard, which doubles the usable spectrum from previously 106 Mhz to 212 MHz. With Amendment 3, Gfast is now capable of providing an aggregated bandwidth of 2 Gbps, delivering fiber-like speeds for Multi-Dwelling Units (MDUs) and other applications which require leveraging the existing phone or cable television wiring infrastructure.

ADTRAN said the increased capacity also helps operators with additional deployment flexibility, as for the first time Gfast-based services can be delivered to locations where these need to coexist with existing VDSL2 services while still maintaining the ability to deliver symmetric Gigabit speeds. The company has Gfast deployments underway with Tier 1 carrier networks in Asia, Australia, North America and Europe.

“Second generation Gfast solutions can allow operators, municipalities and regulatory agencies another delivery path to meeting the goal of delivering Gigabit speeds to consumers,” IHS Markit Principal Analyst, Service Provider Technology, John Kendall said. “The current Gfast market is set for strong growth as leading service providers are ramping deployments as a natural extension of their fiber investment strategies and Gigabit service rollout plans.”

“In today’s global economy, having access to Gigabit services has become playing stakes for any carrier that wants to compete for residential services,” ADTRAN Director of Portfolio Management, Broadband Solutions, Werner Heinrich said. “By delivering the industry’s most complete SD-Access solution set, including fully Gigabit-capable Gfast solutions, ADTRAN is providing our customers with the opportunity to expand the reach of their fiber broadband services and open the way into the Gigabit Society for many more of their subscribers.”

https://www.adtran.com/index.php/adtran-delivers-first-2nd-gen-gfast-solutions-as-worldwide-deployments-ramp

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